Author Archives: Cherylanne Skolnicki

Does your life have enough “white space”?

From time to time (and with his permission!) I’ll be re-posting some things written by Leo Babauta on his ZenHabits blog. Leo has an interesting and admirable philosophy of un-copywriting his content, preferring that others help to spread the word. I find that a number of his posts reinforce the principles I teach at Nourish and  I hope they will inspire you on your path to well-being. This one beautifully illustrates the “Rest” principle.


Create space.
Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter .
I’m not a designer, but I’ve always been in love with the design concept of white space.
It’s the space in a design that isn’t filled with things — as you can tell from the design of Zen Habits and my other blog, mnmlist, it’s something I use (perhaps too) liberally.
But white space can be used in the design of our lives as well, not just the design of magazines and websites and ads. By using white space in our lives, we create space, balance, emphasis on what’s important, and a feeling of peace that we cannot achieve with a more cramped life. Let’s look briefly at how to do this.

 The principles of white space

Some of the things white space accomplishes in design:
  • greater legibility
  • feeling of luxury
  • breathing room & balance
  • more emphasis
These same concepts can translate to our lives:
  • Clarity. Instead of legibility, white space can give clarity to the things in our lives — whether they’re possessions, projects, tasks, or just things that occupy our time and attention. A nice piece of furniture is more beautiful when it’s not surrounded by clutter. A well-prepared piece of food is more tasty when it’s not smothered in sauces and piled with fries and cheese. A presentation is more effective when we don’t use Powerpoint and have only a few points to make.
  • Peace. When our lives are cramped, and our homes and workspaces are cluttered, we feel stressed. When we have fewer things on our schedule and fewer things around us, we feel peaceful.
  • Breathing room & balance. Many people talk about finding “work-life balance”, but this is very hard to do if you have no white space. Leave space between things to find the breathing room you need, and to easier achieve balance.
  • Emphasis on the important. When our days are non-stop busy, everything is important and nothing is important. But put white space between things, and those things acquire more weight, and we place more importance on each individual thing.

Achieving white space

In theory, achieving white space isn’t difficult: you remove non-essential items from your life, your workday, your surroundings, your possessions, and leave the essential items with space around them.
But of course in practice it’s a bit different, and requires experimentation, learning, practice. I’d suggest starting small, with one area of your life, and making small bits of white space. Start by identifying what’s important, and the slowly removing the non-essential things to create the white space.
Some ideas:
  • Breathe. Simply take a couple minutes between tasks, meetings, anything that you do, to breathe. After a meeting, for example, return to your desk and just sit still for a couple minutes, focusing on your breath going in and out. When you get home, pause and breathe. When you’re done with a task on the computer, close everything and breathe, before starting on the next task. This creates space between tasks and allows you to focus on each one.
  • Schedule. Don’t overschedule. Leave space on your schedule, between tasks, instead of putting things back-to-back. The space gives you time to go between tasks, to recover, to refocus, to breathe.
  • Projects. Do fewer projects at a time. Instead of juggling a bunch of projects at once, try to do one for as long as you can before switching to the next (sometimes you need to switch because you’re waiting on information or on someone else to do something). If you can, take a short break between each project — as long as you can afford.
  • Sit. Start your day with the white space of just sitting still for 10 minutes. It can be a meditation session, or simply sitting still with a cup of coffee or tea. If you like this, try putting it in the middle and end of your day as well.
  • Remove clutter. Pick a few important things on your desk, or in your home, and remove the rest. This will give you visual space and create a more peaceful atmosphere.
  • Savor. Slow down and savor everything you eat, everything you do. Breathe before you take each bite, and enjoy each bite.
You can read more about simplicity in Leo’s books, The Zen Habits Handbook for Life & The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. More here.
This entry was posted in All blog posts, Lifestyle and tagged , , on by .

White or Wheat?

America, we’ve flipped the balance! This year, for the first time ever (and by a narrow margin), sales* of wheat bread have surpassed sales of white bread in our country. Americans appear to be getting the message that whole grains are best and that wheat bread is healthier than white bread. Hurray for us!

But before we celebrate too heartily, let’s review a few important reminders that will help to ensure the wheat bread you are buying is actually a healthy one and not just white bread in disguise.

1 – It has to be 100% whole wheat (or whole other grain) bread, not just “wheat bread”. There is a huge difference between these two. Companies can label a bread as wheat bread even if it contains largely refined wheat flour (also knows as enriched flour). This is basically white flour in disguise – it doesn’t count as healthy.


2 – Beware the “whole grain” marketing hype. Calling it “Twelve Grain Super Health Nut Bread” does NOT make it healthy. Sorry marketers. A bread that states it “contains whole grains” or is “multigrain” is not necessarily a healthful choice. Net, claims on the front of the package aren’t very helpful and can even be misleading. So, instead….

3 – Let the nutrition label be your guide.  The only thing that matters is what’s really inside the package…and that information is found only on the nutrition label. Check out the first few ingredients – one of them should be 100% whole wheat. And one of them should not be sugar (or a pseudonym for sugar). Check the fiber content – you’re looking for at least 3g fiber/slice…there are brands with up to 6g/slice that are delicious.

Buying bread shouldn’t be difficult, despite the guidance above. Once you’ve done a little homework and found a brand that is healthful AND tastes good to you, you can simply and quickly buy that variety every time you shop. 


If you’d like to learn more, check out this article; it’s jam-packed (no pun intended) with even more info about how to choose a healthy bread.

*According to Nielsen Co. For the 52 weeks ended July 10, wheat bread sales increased 0.6 percent to $2.6 billion, while white bread sales declined 7 percent to $2.5 billion. White bread is still ahead in volume, but the margin is shrinking. Americans bought 1.5 billion packages of white bread in the last year, a 3 percent decrease, and 1.3 billion packages of wheat bread, a 5 percent increase.

This entry was posted in All blog posts, Food, Uncategorized on by .

3 Kitchen Tools You’ll Love

I’m not a big gadget person. I like to keep things pretty simple, especially in the kitchen. I detest clutter (I mean really detest clutter) so I don’t always think gadgets are worth the space they take up in my cabinets. 

Have you seen some of the crazy things being sold on television? Do we really need the Egg Genie? Or pizza scissors? How about the hot dog toaster  – one gadget to simultaneously cook hot dogs and toast buns? Please.

Yet there are a few kitchen tools that I find myself reaching for so often, they are worth every square inch of space they require. There are more than three on my personal “must have” list, so I’ll share some more another day,  but here are three I don’t think I could (happily) live without.

1) A garlic press                2) A salad spinner             3) A citrus juicer



Let’s start with the garlic press. There are few kitchen tasks as tedious as mincing garlic. If you’ve ever found yourself mincing clove after clove with irregularly shaped bits clinging to your knife and praying you don’t cut off your fingertips, this is for you. This tool allows you to hack the ends off a clove of garlic, stick it inside, and press out perfectly minced garlic. Simply scrape out the fibrous outer layer that is left inside the press and toss the tool in the dishwasher. Brilliant.

The salad spinner is a relatively recent addition to my kitchen (and one my husband is amazed I actually use – it’s pretty big for my taste). But washing greens is so important in order to remove dirt and potential contaminants, and there is nothing worse than a salad made with the resulting wet lettuce. The leaves are soggy and the dressing won’t stick! A quick turn through the salad spinner (which is a job my 3 year old refers to as “pumping the lettuce”) crisps the greens right back up again. Just the way they belong.

The citrus juicer is one tool where simpler is better. There are fancier versions on the market, but the one I have pictured above is my favorite. It makes short work of juicing lemons, limes, or oranges. If you’re doing that job by squeezing with your hand today this is a worthwhile upgrade. You’ll get more juice and no seeds or pulp in your finished dish. This is another one you just throw in the dishwasher to clean.

So there you have it, 3 kitchen tools you’ll love. I’ll share another round of favorites soon.

This entry was posted in All blog posts, Food and tagged , on by .